Although Maine was ranked first in the Nation as the most peaceful 
state to live in - in the United States, New Hampshire came in second and in my opinion we offer one other item not accounted for. In New Hampshire we have no, Personal income tax and no broad based sales tax. But here is the independent findings of this first of it's kind study:
The first-ever ranking of peace in the USA finds the nation overall is the most peaceful since 1995.
The rankings are drawn up by the Institute for Economics and Peace, an international think-tank that also issues a yearly Global Peace Index.
The index, which defines peace as "the absence of violence," looks at a 
set of five indicators, including homicide rates, violent crimes, percentage of the population in jail, number of police officers and availability of small arms (per 100,000 people) to rank the states. The data are drawn from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, FBI and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On that basis, the institute finds that peace in the USA improved by 8% from 1995 to 2009.
It notes a significant correlation between a state's level of peace and its economic opportunity, education and health but finds peacefulness is politically neutral -- neither Republican nor Democratic states have an advantage.
Maine was ranked first overall because it topped the list of states on three of the five USPI indicators: number of violent crimes, number of police officers and incarceration rate.Here are the top Ten -and Bottom Ten (from this study) of the most peaceful ranking:
The most peaceful states: 1. Maine; 2. New Hampshire; 3. Vermont; 4. Minnesota; 5. North Dakota; 6. Utah; 7. Massachusetts; 8.Rhode Island; 9. Iowa; 10. Washington......
The least peaceful states: 1. Louisiana; 2. Tennessee; 3. Nevada; 4. Florida; 5. Alabama; 6. Texas; 7. Arkansas; 8. Oklahoma; 9. South Carolina; 10. Maryland 
The White Mountains of New Hampshire are two hours from Boston -two hours from Montreal -and less than two hours from the sea coast...what a great place to live.
*All three Photos taken from Mount Pemigewasset in Lincoln New Hampshire*
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